Ex-director: Local NJ police didn’t spy on Muslims

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – A former police director of New Jersey’s largest city says no local officers were used in a spying operation that monitored and catalogued his city’s Muslim neighborhoods.

Garry McCarthy tells the Associated Press on Wednesday that the New York Police Department notified him as a courtesy that it was sending plainclothes offices into Newark in 2007. McCarthy says no Newark police officers were used in the operation.

The NYPD officers photographed mosques and eavesdropped on conversations in businesses frequented by Muslims. The result was a 60-page report, obtained by The AP, that was a guide to Newark’s Muslims. It never mentioned terrorism or criminal allegations.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker says he never approved the spying and promised to investigate.

McCarthy is now working as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s police superintendent.

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